Revival
by The Mysterious Traveller
Summary: in the aftermath of an imaginary battle with the Chosen the Mallrats have lost one their own but are about to regain an old friend...


Revival   
  
  
A tribal tale by the   
mysterious traveller   
  
  
Ebony stared at Bray as he leaned over Danni's body and caressed her face.  
She knew that in that moment he was thinking that Bray would have given anything to have brought danni back. he would have given anything to have had a few precious moments to make his peace.  
but now it was too late.  
The Mallrats final battle with the Chosen had seen to the fact which was that Danni was gone forever. A casualty of the strife.  
She knew this because she was thinking exactly the same thing herself.  
For the first time ever Ebony pitied somone other than herself.  
she saw Brays face which had surrendered into a hopeless mask rimmed with tear skids.  
Sasha watched helplessly as Bray sobbed.  
He wished there was something he could do.  
The jester took out his four leafed clover and studied it intently. he wavered for a moment and then savagely flung it into the river.  
For the first time in hs life the jester known as Sasha wished that he could cry.  
jade watched wishing that she could make a carefree optimistic observation that would make everything ok again. But it was not to be.  
not even she who had been subject to the ultimate truth could banish the sadness from of Danni's loss from Brays heart.  
for the first time since the virus had struck jade was at a loss.  
lex watched in disbelief as Bray lifted his face and choked.  
Bray...Choking!  
Lex realised that Bray was not the slimy creep he once thought him to be. he remembered with shame all the greivances he had given Bray since he had arrived with Trudy on that day so long ago.  
All of Brays offences real or imaginary were forgotten in that moment of truth.  
Lex wished that what had happened between bray and himself had never come to pass.  
But it was no use.  
Lex couldnt change the past.  
Bray stood and faced his friends.  
"We gained a victory a few days ago." he said in a flat emotionless tone. "or at least half a victory and half a defeat..."  
The mallrats old and new nodded.   
Little did they know it however but a miracle had just happened forty miles away at eagle mountain.   
Bray sat at the foot of the steps.  
The bottom had fallen out of his life.  
Salene appeared at the foot of the steps.  
"Are you ok?" she asked gently.  
Bray stared at her in disbelief.  
He had never felt less ok in his life.  
Then she was there.  
he had always known that sensation.  
Bray had always been able to tell when she was around. It was a strange feeling he'd have when in her prescence.  
It was a feeling he had never felt ever since that dark day at eagle mountain.  
The long missed friend stood before the startled pair who's eyes were as wide as could be.  
There was a startled look in her eyes.  
a look which contained emotion that words are no where near adequate to explain.  
"Am...am I home?" she stammered.  
Bray was the first to speak.  
"Amber?!!"  
  
  
Chapter two   
  
"She's back! Amber's back!"  
Sasha was sure he had'nt heard that right.  
Squinting across a bloody plain the last few days before must have inflicted Bray with temporary brain damage.  
poor guy, the jester thought, first losing Amber and now losing Danni. He must have become trapped in a delusion.  
sasha remembered when he had tried to persuade Amber to leave the mall with him.  
he had been heartbroken when she had decided to stay after all.  
Her last words to him, the last words she had ever spoken to him.  
"Oh you'll be alright. You dont need anyone. Not really."  
Looking back on it now Sasha realised that that just had'nt been true.  
If I had stayed, he thought, might amber still have been alive today?  
But it was no good thinking about that. He'd dwell on thos if-only's forever and it wouldnt change a thing.  
he walked out of the his room and towards the source of Bray's voice.  
Then he froze.  
Muscles locked unable to move a muscle as he stared at a ghost.   
the Mallrats couldnt beleive it.  
they crowded around thier friend.  
In the moment no one bothered to question her life.  
Amber was home.  
She was alive  
That was all that mattered.  
Bray could hardly beleive it. It seemed like a dream to him. But as he held amber in his arms he realised that it was quite quite real.  
Tai San noticed that Sasha was holding back from the group.  
She had thought that the jester would have been the life and soul of amber's homecoming.  
He caught her gaze and returned it with a smile.  
"You know that I can never have her back." he remarked.   
"Then why did you return?" she asked.  
"For her sake. For mine. Who knows?" sasha shrugged. "but now that Bray has Amber back my job is over. The wheels of tribeworld have turned and I no longer belong in it."  
He turned away from her from the friends he had made towards the gateway.  
Tai San watched him go.  
Sad, she thought.  
However as the jester neared the gateway Amber looked up and caught sight of him for the first time.  
"Sasha?"  
Sasha stopped right where he was.  
That voice again.  
The voice that had stopped him from leaving that day oh so long ago before Lex and Zandra's wedding.  
Yet it lacked a certain something. A feeling which Sasha knew he would never experience again.  
Mustering a cheery grin he turned and faced Amber.  
"see you've come back Amber." he said.  
"And you too." she said. "I'm glad to see you Sasha. I never thought that I'd see you again.  
Sasha blinked.  
He had often pondered what Amber's first words would be if they ever met again.  
He had never not for one moment counted on  
"I'm glad to see you."  
But she didnt mean it in the way he wished with all his soul that it would have meant.  
Feeling sadder than he ever had in his entire life yet still satisfied sasha rejoined the throng of happiness and friendship  
  
  
Chapter three   
  
How?  
this was the question which was buzzing throught the mall for the next few days.  
The mallrats couldnt understand how it was that the girl they had seen die had returned to them monthes after they had payed their final respects to her.  
Alice Ellie Jade and Fallien had'nt known Amber but they had heard about her being the unofficial leader of the Mallrats before her "demise" at eagle Mountain.  
They had realised that on that day the Mallrats had suffered a devastating blow.  
The question was at burning point.  
Amber herself could not tell them because she had collapsed of exhaustion the day she had returned and had yet to awaken.  
Sasha was keeping awfully quiet about his former love's return.  
Tai san said that it was something to do with fate but she always said that kind of thing.  
Ebony was silent but wondered how Amber's return would effect her position in the tribe.  
"Look" said Jack three days after Amber's reappearance "We've got to talk about this."  
"Whats there to talk about?" asked Bray "Ambers back. Why do we need to talk?"  
Jack gave a sigh of exasperation.  
he had by no means expected this to be a success.  
"Look we all saw her die!" he exclaimed "So how do you explain what happened a few days ago?"  
"I dont know!" snapped Bray "Anyway we actually SEE Amber being killed. We just buried those rocks because we couldnt find the Amber and Zandra's bodies."  
"The observatory was torched!" said Jack "How could anyone have survived it?"  
"Well I dont know how but she did so just leave it ok?"  
Bray rose to his feet and walked off.  
the other's watched him go.  
"Christ..." muttered Fallian.   
Sasha watched all this from the music store. It was where he often went when he was feeling baffled and thoughtful.  
Amber was alive.  
How could that be possible?  
He had heard about her death from the others when he had returned. Of course he had not doubted for a second that Amber WAS dead.  
Still that had not taken away the pain.  
But the revelation that Amber lived a restored the light to his soul and banished the pain and despair he had felt.  
Yet still...  
Sasha had a feeling that something was not quite right...  
He furrowed his brow at the reflection.   
Lex sat on his bed and wondered.  
They had all seen the observatory explode with Amber and Zandra inside it.  
They had assumed Amber dead but she had turned up alive.   
So what about...Zandra?   
Fallian emptied the last of the cheese and onion ringos into his mouth and crunched.  
Alice watched in disgust and turned away.  
Tai San looked around the room and sighed inwardly. The doubt and trepidation was making the Mallrats edgy and irritable.  
She opened her mouth to voice her views on the present state of the Mallrats.  
But she never had chance to speak.  
For it was at that second that Bray called down to them.  
"Hey eveyone! Amber's awake!"  
  
  
fourth and final chapter   
  
"Sorry I'm late" Fallian apologised as he entered Amber's room mopping whipped cream from his mouth.  
"Dont worry about it." Tai San replied.  
They had all arranged to meet in Amber's room in two hours after she had woken up.  
After her initial disorientation Amber had decided to tell them all how it was that she was still alive and where she had been for all these monthes after Eagle Mountain.  
Sasha had been the first to arrive. He had not seen Amber since her return and although he had told himself that it was probably better for her if she had time to recover he had been impatient to speak with her.  
Bray had not cared about the reason Amber had been away for so long. It was simply enough to him to have his love back.   
All the despair and misery he had caged up until meeting Danni and then retained after her life had been taken by the Chosen had been banished by Ambers return to the mall.  
Jade had never met Amber before but wandering singer was still curious as to why she had not returned sooner if she had indeed survived the explosion at the observatory.  
Amber looked up at all those gathered around her bedside.  
"Looks like I have quite an audience." she remarked.   
She hesitated there wondering where to begin, wondering how to explain her absense.  
She sighed.  
The longer it took her the harder it would be to make her friends understand.  
She looked up and began her story...   
"We are content."  
The figure stared out across the ocean which was red against the sunset.  
His bretheren knelt silently behind him.  
The Guardian stood as solid as a rock.  
He had decided to end their lives here and now.  
He had failed.  
The mallrats had defeated them and Power and Chaos would now never reign supreme throughout the world.  
He considered his broken tribe.  
Most of the Chosen had died on that fateful day when they had marched on the city.  
The Chosen had been defeated and the vision was over before it had even begun.  
He considered his final action before they left this world forever.  
His penultimate action had been to free Amber from the cell he had had incarcerated the day the Chosen had arrived at eagle Mountain.  
He remembered having captured the blackened and bedraggled leader of the Mallrats and having her imprisoned hoping to gain leverage against the Mallrats by holding her.  
this was a plan which the Guardian had been unable to execute since his followers had been annihalated a few days ago.  
The Guardian decided that he was obliged to pay respect to those who had vanquished them.  
It took a mighty tribe to defeat the will of almighty Zoot, he mused, and that tribe we met that day in the city.  
He sighed.  
It was over.  
the Chosen no longer existed.  
He turned around gave the order to release Zandra and then to command his followers to plunge themselves over the cliff...   
  
The end.  
  



End file.
